Palace of arms in Ogun as Police recover weapons from 2 Obas , 9 suspects arrested

The police in Ogun State have recovered a cache of arms from the palaces of two monarchs whose supporters recently attacked residents in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area.

Hoodlums who had taken sides in the lingering chieftaincy dispute between the two monarchs over the stool, used dangerous weapons, including guns and set ablaze buildings and cars during last week’s violence which lasted for two days. Several people were also seriously injured.

But while carrying out a house-to-house search on buildings in the town, the police recovered arms as well as other dangerous items and arrested nine suspects. The police said that 12 locally-made single barrel guns,two pump action guns,191 cartridges,two machetes, one axe,charms and masquer­ades regalia were recovered in one of the palaces while the butt of a locally-made single barrel gun was recovered from another Oba’s palace.

Police Public Relations Officer, Muy­iwa Adejobi, said in a statement that one of the monarchs had also been impli­cated by some suspects over a “shooting and wounding” incident that occurred at a petrol filling station in Agbado area of the state on Boxing Day.

Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent, also disclosed that the feuding tradition­al rulers have been summoned by the police command “for interrogation and proper investigation on their involve­ments in the crisis that rocked the area for days.”

The police spokesman said: “The crisis was brought under control with the efforts of the Area Commander in charge of Otta, ACP Titilayo Kayode and the Divisional Police Officer, Otta, CSP Gabriel Idibe before the matter was transferred to the Department of Crimi­nal Investigation on the directive of the Deputy Commissioner of the Police in Department of Finance and Adminis­tration and second-in-command, DCP Haliru Gwandu, for thorough investiga­tion.

“This investigation prompted the police teams from the Department of Criminal Investigation, Police Mo­bile Force,coordinated by the Deputy Commissioner of police in charge of Department of Operations, in the state command, DCP Egberebi Egbuson, to conduct search and raids on the palaces and premises of the two disputing rulers on December 27 at night time.”

The PPRO said the suspects will soon appear in court after the investigation into the matter is concluded.